Etowah County
County record. Includes every city and agency within Etowah County.
Technology presence
What these categories mean
- ALPR
- Automated license plate readers (ALPR): camera systems that automatically capture, read, and log vehicle license plates with location and time, producing a searchable record of vehicle movements.
- Fixed cameras & RTCC
- Agency-operated fixed video cameras and the real-time crime centers (RTCC) that aggregate live and recorded feeds for monitoring. Extends the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Atlas, which enumerates real-time crime centers and camera registries but not standalone fixed-camera estates.
- Face recognition
- Software that matches faces in images or video against a reference database to identify or verify individuals.
- Drones / UAS
- Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), commonly called drones, operated by an agency for overhead observation, imaging, or sensing.
- Gunshot detection
- Networks of acoustic sensors that detect and locate suspected gunfire and alert an agency.
- Body-worn & dashcam
- Officer body-worn and in-vehicle dashboard cameras that record encounters; public access to the footage is frequently restricted.
- Doorbell & camera registry
- Programs that give an agency access to privately owned camera footage: doorbell-camera partnerships, citizen camera registries, and private-camera integration platforms.
- Cell-site simulators
- Devices that mimic cell towers to locate or identify nearby mobile phones. They are often called Stingrays, or IMSI catchers after the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number that identifies each phone on a network. Adjacent: communications surveillance outside the visual/sensor core.
- Predictive policing
- Software that forecasts where crime may occur or who may be involved, to direct policing. Adjacent: analytics rather than a sensing deployment.
- Social-media monitoring
- Tools that collect and analyze public social-media activity for an agency. Adjacent: open-source/communications monitoring outside the visual/sensor core.
The record, by agency
Etowah County Sheriff's Office
The Etowah County Sheriff's Office operates 10 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Etowah County Sheriff's Office purchased $400,000 in new body-worn cameras and Tasers in 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Etowah County Sheriff's Office
The Etowah County Sheriff's Office received grant funding for drones in 2022.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Etowah County Sheriff's OfficeCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.wnem.com
Rainbow City Police Department
The Rainbow City Police Department operates 10 Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Rainbow City Police Department received a $40,000 homeland security grant, which was partly used to purchase a drone, in 2021.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): WBRCCenter for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.gadsdentimes.com
Southside Police Department
The Southside Police Department operates eight Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
The Southside Police Department operates one DJI Mavic drone as of 2019, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.wbrc.com
Attalla Police Department
The Attalla Police Department operates seven Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
Glencoe Police Department
The Glencoe Police Department operates six Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
Sardis City Police Department
The Sardis City Police Department operates two Flock Safety automated license plate readers as of September 2025.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Pittsboro Police Department
Gadsden Police Department
The Gadsden City Council approved an agreement with Alabama Power Co. to place 15 Flock license plate recognition cameras and three video cameras throughout Gadsden.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Gadsden Times
The Gadsden Police Department operates one AeroVironment Wasp III drone as of 2010, according to data compiled by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Sources (via the EFF Atlas): Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard Collegewww.gadsdentimes.com
Source: EFF Atlas of Surveillance (Electronic Frontier Foundation & University of Nevada, Reno — Reynolds School of Journalism) · CC BY 4.0 · retrieved July 2026